Timesys Getting Started Guide for Freescale MPC8536DS
Contents
- Introduction
- Prerequisites
- Preparing the Target
- Preparing the Host
- Booting the Board
- Additional Information
Introduction
This document will describe in detail the procedures for booting a Linux kernel image and mounting a root file system over NFS on the Freescale MPC8536DS.
Prerequisites
Host Requirements
To properly boot a board using software from Timesys, your host machine must meet the following requirements:
- Modern GNU/Linux Distribution. While you can use nearly any modern Linux distribution released in the last 24 months, Timesys recommends one of the following:
- Ubuntu (Most recent release or LTS)
- Fedora (Most recent release)
- An internet connection on the Development Host.
- Root or sudo permission on the Development Host.
- A copy of the Linux Kernel (uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc) and Root File System (rootfs.tar.gz) for the Target Board downloaded from Factory. These are found in the output directory of your online build, or in the directory build_powerpc-timesys-linux-<libc>/images/ on the command line.
- If you are booting your root file system over the network, you will need two network cards installed and configured in the Development Host. One to communicate normally with your LAN/WAN while installing host packages, the other to communicate solely with the target board.
- An available serial port on your Development Host.
Target Requirements
To boot the Freescale MPC8536DS, you will need the following items:
- Freescale MPC8536DS Board
- Serial NULL Modem Cable
- Ethernet Crossover Cable or Ethernet hub/switch and Ethernet Patch Cables
Once you have all of the necessary components, you should perform the following steps:
- Connect the debug port of the board to the serial port of your workstation using the null modem cable.
- If you are using a cross-over cable, connect the Ethernet port of the board to the second Ethernet port of your workstation.
- If you are using an Ethernet hub or switch, connect the board to the hub with a straight-through Ethernet cable, then connect the hub to the second Ethernet port of your workstation.
- Connect the power supply to your board.
Preparing the Target
Configuring Serial Communication
The MPC8536DS uses a serial debug port to communicate with the host machine. The commands discussed in this section are meant to be performed by a privileged user account. This requires the root login or prepending each command with sudo.Using Minicom
- Start minicom on your host machine in configuration mode. As root:
# minicom -o -s -w
- A menu of configuration should appear. Use the Down-arrow key to scroll down and select the Serial port setup option, and press Enter.
- Verify that the listed serial port is the same one that is connected to the target board. If it is not, press A, and enter the correct device. This is /dev/ttyS0 on most Linux distributions.
- Set the Bps/Par/Bits option by pressing the letter E and using the next menu to set the appropriate values. You press the key that corresponds to the value 115200, then press Enter.
- Set Hardware flow control to No using the F key.
- Set Software flow control to No using the G key.
- Press Enter to return to the main configuration menu, and then press Esc to exit this menu.
- Reset the board, and wait for a moment. If you do not see output from the board, press Enter several times until you see the prompt. If you do not see any output from the board, and have verified that the serial terminal connection is setup correctly, contact your board vendor.
TIP: If you experience an error similar to Device /dev/ttyS0 is locked when starting minicom, it usually means that another process is using the serial port (which is usually another instance of minicom). You can find the process that is currently using the serial port by executing the following:
/dev/ttyS0: 28358
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
28923 pts/0 S+ 0:00 minicom
This process can also be killed directly with fuser as root. Please use this command with caution:
Using GNU Screen
To quickly connect to a board using Gnu Screen, execute the following:
For more information about using screen, please consult the man page, or view the manual online at http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html
Configuring the Network Interface
Finding and Changing the MAC Address
The MAC address on the MPC8536DS is set by the ethaddr environment variable in U-Boot.If ethaddr is not set, it can be set using the setenv command.
Example
The MAC Address can be found using the printenv command in U-Boot.
Example
baudrate=115200
bootfile="uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc"
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
ethaddr=12:34:56:78:9a:bc
NOTE Once the MAC address has been set, it cannot be changed without destroying the entire U-Boot environment.
Changing the IP Address
The IP address can be set manually by modifying the ipaddr environment variable, or automatically using the dhcp or bootp commands.
Preparing the Host
Setting up the network
The commands discussed in this section are meant to be performed by a privileged user account. This requires the root login or prepending each command with sudo.Identify the network adapter connecting the Host to the Target
Timesys only supports direct Ethernet connections from the development Host to the Target board. Ideally, the development Host would have two network adapters; one adapter to connect to your LAN, and one Ethernet card to connect directly to the Target board with a crossover cable or Ethernet hub. If your development Host only has one network interface it must be directly connected to the Target board. The Ethernet adapter connected directly to the target board must be:- Configured with a proper static IP address and Subnet Mask.
- Connected directly to the target board with either a crossover cable or its own Ethernet hub.
inet addr:192.168.3.244 Bcast:192.168.3.255 Mask:255.255.254.0
inet6 addr: fe80::219:bbff:fe49:ff0e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:57214 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:47272 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:43109083 (41.1 MB) TX bytes:6308206 (6.0 MB)
Interrupt:16
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:10:b5:4a:c1:a9
inet addr:10.0.0.1 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:21 Base address:0x1100
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1974 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1974 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:226637 (221.3 KB) TX bytes:226637 (221.3 KB)
Installing the server daemons on the development host
- On Ubuntu 11.04 and newer:
# apt-get install xinetd tftp tftpd isc-dhcp-server \
nfs-kernel-server portmap
- On Ubuntu 10.11 and older:
# apt-get install xinetd tftp tftpd dhcp3-server \NOTE: Older versions of Ubuntu use nfs-common and nfs-user-server in place of nfs-kernel-server
nfs-kernel-server portmap
- On Fedora Core:
# yum install xinetd tftp tftp-server dhcp nfs-utils
Important:
After installing these packages the DHCP server software may start automatically. Having the DHCP server running while you are connected to a LAN can interfere with the operation of other computers. After the DHCP service installs and starts issue these commands to stop the DHCP service and prevent it from starting automatically at boot:
- To stop the dhcp service:
- On Ubuntu 11.04 and newer:
# service isc-dhcp-server stop
- On Ubuntu 10.11 and older:
# service dhcp3-server stop
- On Fedora Core:
# /etc/init.d/dhcp stop
- On Ubuntu 11.04 and newer:
- To prevent the service from starting automatically:
- On Ubuntu 11.04 and newer:
# chmod 644 /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server
- On Ubuntu 10.11 and older:
# chmod 644 /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server
- On Fedora Core:
- Click the System Menu
- Select Administration
- Select Services
- Select dhcpd
- Click the Customize button
- Uncheck Runlevel 2, 3, 4 and 5
- On Ubuntu 11.04 and newer:
Disable SELinux and Firewall on Fedora Core
On Fedora Core, SELinux and the firewall will interfere with many of the services that are needed to work with the target board. These should be disabled before continuing.
Generally Ubuntu does not have these services running by default.
- Disable SELinux:
- Click the System Menu
- Select Administration
- Select SELinux Management
- Change System Default Enforcing Mode to Disabled
- Disable Firewall:
- Click the System Menu
- Select Administration
- Select Services
- Select iptables
- Click the Customize button
- uncheck Runlevel 2, 3, 4 and 5
Setting up DHCP
- Edit the dhcpd configuration file:
- On Ubuntu, edit /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf and include the following lines (note: on older versions of Ubuntu this file is at either /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf or /etc/dhcpd.conf):
subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 {
host targetboard {
fixed-address 10.0.0.10;
hardware ethernet 12:34:56:78:9a:bc;
option root-path "/full/path/to/rfs";
filename "uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc";
}
}
- On Fedora Core, edit /etc/dhcpd.conf and include the following lines:
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;
subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 {
host targetboard {
fixed-address 10.0.0.10;
hardware ethernet 12:34:56:78:9a:bc;
option root-path "/full/path/to/rfs";
next-server 10.0.0.1;
filename "uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc";
}
}
- On Ubuntu, edit /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf and include the following lines (note: on older versions of Ubuntu this file is at either /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf or /etc/dhcpd.conf):
- Test the DHCP server on the network card that is connected to your
development board. For this example assume eth1. This command will
start the DHCP server in the foreground and output any status or error
messages to the screen.
- On Ubuntu up to 12.04 LTS:
# service dhcp3-server restart
- On Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and later:
# service isc-dhcp-server restart
- On Fedora Core:
# /usr/sbin/dhcpd -d eth1
- It is recommended to start the DHCP server in this manner each time you need to boot your Target board.
- On Ubuntu up to 12.04 LTS:
Setting up TFTP
- Edit the xinetd.conf file
- On Ubuntu, edit /etc/xinetd.conf and add the following lines just above the line
that reads includedir /etc/xinetd.d.
service tftp
{
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -s /tftpboot
disable = no
}
- On Fedora Core, the tftp-server package creates a /etc/xinetd.d/tftp file. Edit this
file and change the disable line from
yes to no. The contents of the file are:
service tftp
{
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -s /tftpboot
disable = no
per_source = 11
cps = 100 2
flags = IPv4
}
- On Ubuntu, edit /etc/xinetd.conf and add the following lines just above the line
that reads includedir /etc/xinetd.d.
- Create the /tftpboot folder if it does not exist:
# mkdir /tftpboot
- Copy the kernel image to the /tftpboot directory:
# cp /path/to/kernel/image/uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc \
/tftpboot/uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc
NOTE Also copy other files that are required for booting, such as a device tree blob, to /tftpboot.
- Restart the xinetd server with the following command:
# /etc/init.d/xinetd restart
- Test the TFTP server with the following commands
# tftp localhost
tftp> get uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc
Received 1456898 bytes in 0.4 seconds
tftp> quit
- Set xinetd to start automatically on Fedora Core.
Ubuntu users will skip this step.
- Click the System Menu
- Select Administration
- Select Services
- Select xinetd
- Click the Customize button
- Check Runlevel 2, 3, 4 and 5
Setting up NFS
- As root, extract rootfs.tar.gz to a directory
and note the path. This path will be referred to as /full/path/to/rfs
in this document.
# mkdir /full/path/to/rfs
# cd /full/path/to/rfs
# sudo tar xvf rootfs.tar.gz
- Export this path by editing /etc/exports to include a line similar
to the following:
/full/path/to/rfs 10.0.0.10(rw,no_root_squash)
- Restart the NFS services
- On Ubuntu issue the following commands in order:
# service portmap stopNOTE: Older versions of Ubuntu use nfs-common and nfs-user-server in place of nfs-kernel-server
# service nfs-kernel-server stop
# service portmap start
# service nfs-kernel-server start
- On Fedora Core:
# /etc/init.d/nfs restart
- On Ubuntu issue the following commands in order:
- Set nfsd to start automatically on Fedora Core. Ubuntu users will
skip this step.
- Click the System Menu
- Select Administration
- Select Services
- Select NFS
- Click the Customize button
- Check Runlevel 2, 3, 4 and 5
Booting the Board
Set Environment Variables
You must set a few environment variables in order to boot the board over TFTP and DHCP. This is done with the setenv and saveenv commands in U-Boot. On the target, set the following environment variables:
Variable | Value |
bootargs | console=ttyS0,115200 ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs rw |
bootcmd | bootp\;tftp C00000 mpc8536ds\;bootm 1000000 - C00000 |
loadaddr | 1000000 |
If you are not using bootp to load the kernel, you must also specify the following values:
Variable | Value |
serverip | 10.0.0.1 |
ipaddr | 10.0.0.10 |
bootfile | uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc |
bootargs | console=ttyS0,115200 ip=${ipaddr} root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=${serverip}:/full/path/to/rfs |
bootcmd | tftp\;tftp C00000 mpc8536ds\;bootm 1000000 - C00000 |
Example
> setenv bootcmd bootp\;tftp C00000 mpc8536ds\;bootm 1000000 - C00000
> setenv loadaddr 1000000
> saveenv
Load The Kernel
You can use bootp or tftp to load the kernel. Note that the DHCP server needs to be set up for bootp, and tftp is necessary for both.
Example
Speed: 100, full duplex
BOOTP broadcast 1
Using eTSEC1 device
TFTP from server 10.0.0.1; our IP address is 10.0.0.10
Filename 'uImage-2.6.32-ts-powerpc'.
Load address: 1000000
Loading: #################################################################
#################################################################
##################################################
done
Bytes transferred = 2632869 (282ca5 hex)
Load The Device Tree Blob
You can use tftp to load the device tree. The previous bootp command will have set up the interface for you.
Example
Speed: 100, full duplex
Using eTSEC1 device
TFTP from server 10.0.0.1; our IP address is 10.0.0.10
Filename 'mpc8536ds'.
Load address: C00000
Loading: #
done
Bytes transferred = 13395 (3453 hex)
Boot the Kernel
The bootm command is used to boot the kernel. It loads the file that was previously uploaded using the bootp, dhcp, or tftp commands.
Example
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 01000000 ...
Image Name: Linux-2.6.32
Image Type: Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 2632805 Bytes = 2.5 MB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 00000000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 00C00000
Booting using the fdt blob at 0xC00000
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
Loading Device Tree to 007f9000, end 007ff452 ... OK
Additional Information
Factory Documentation